Damn the French they have gone TOO far!

[gsmoove23]

We don't know who picked up the story first, I've seen a bbc report on it too. There is no reason to assume that who ever printed it first knew it was or wasn't a hoax. Just because it happened on French soil doesn't make me believe it was done by a French person or peace activist.

If it were a hoax it would make this thread a troll about a troll.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Rothy
Mobius, I've addresed it already acknowledging the part it played was a large one, but by no means the only one. As i said, we took it heavy during the blitz - a campaign aimed at pressing us into surrender and because of our mentality it did the exact opposite.

We were lucky during the blitz because Goering fatally changed his tactics from destroying the RAF (which he was within weeks of doing!) to terror bombing - without the RAF Op. Sealion would have become a real possibility...

Some brit's would like to erase our 'bloody history', specially since in previous centuries we expanded more than any other empire has ever done (ok, if the Romans had the Technology then who knows.....) but the fact is that it exists - and it's something you'd surely struggle to compare with any French achievements.

I ain't trying to erase nuthin'...

The French successfully took our mainland European holdings. The French also had a large empire at one stage, though never as large as us granted.

And you appear to have completely forgotten about Napoleon - again without the channel we might be speaking French now...

I put it to you that if for the duration of WWII, the UK was swapped with France - it would have been us that would have lost when German panzers rolled into 'London'...

Those French that did fight during WWII - the Free French and the resistance fought with a bravery and tenacity of a people obsessed with liberating their motherland.

[Sandman]

Mobius, I've addresed it already acknowledging the part it played was a large one, but by no means the only one. As i said, we took it heavy during the blitz - a campaign aimed at pressing us into surrender and because of our mentality it did the exact opposite.

We didn't really 'take it heavy' during the blitz. Not compared to what other nations went through.

Mentality had nothing to do with it. Britain started with more planes, and outproduced Germany. The Battle of Britain was won by sheer weight of numbers, not some mystical 'national spirit'.

[sprucemoose3311]

Boycott the french??!

DID u know France owns Sierra, Ubisoft, Motel 6, and mp3.com...

http://www.newsmaxstore.com/contribute/france/index2.cfm

"The suggestion that the bodies of soldiers who died for France should be dug up is particularly foul.”

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/4/2/85207

[GePap]

I had never goe to newsmax, and now i know why. The internet just seem to make people dumber. sad really.

[Spiffor]

I have checked several French news sources (TV channels, all-day news networks, newspapers, local newspaper), and I've found references only in the local newspaper. I've seen in the BBC report the graffiti date back to 26 March though, so that can explain why today's papers don't mention it.
However, I find it disturbing nearly no paper mentions this heinous act.

[Spiffor]

By the way, you might be interested by the difference of coverage between The Sun and the regional newspaper. here is the handmade translation :

From La Voix du Nord, 4th Apr. 2003

"Vandals

Insults written in a symbolical place, where lie more than 10,000 WW1 soldiers
Etaples' British cemetary desecrated

Hostile paroles to the war in Iraq and to the US/UK coalition have been written on the stele and the walls of the monument located at the entrance of Etaples' military cemetary. In this peace haven now belonging to the British territory, located newt to the road leading to Boulogne, rest 11 530 soldiers, including about 9 000 Britons killed during WW1.
No harm has been done on tombs. The insults, some of them targetted to George Bush and Tony Blair, have been written in the night between 26th and 27th March. The gardening leader has discovered the writings at the beginning of his shift, thursday. He alerted the national seat of th Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), in Beaurains near Arras, which has sent a team to erase the same day the message painted in red.
This organization manages in France 2 908 memorial places for the 690 000 Commonwealth soldiers, fallen in France during both World Wars.
In the Pas-de-Calais, CWGC maintains 623 cemetaries and 180 000 tombs. Etaples' cemetary is the biggest in France gathering WW1 British victims. The symbol was obvious for those who wanted to hurt the British people in particular. The cemetary is visited each year by more than 10,000 British tourists. Whether relatives of a dead or not, they like mourning before the perfectly lined-up and cleaned tombs, before they write some words on one of the registers located each side of the stele.

Uneasy inquiry

Who is the culprit of this desecration ? So wonder the policemen of Etaples and the inquirers of Montreuil, who are now on this case of "violated tomb". Is it a "political move" or an "isolated act" ? Inquirers are in an awkward situation, with few clues. What is certain : the message is quite elaborated, and refers for example to the International Criminal Court (TPI), with nearly no misspellings.
This desecration has been revealed in Britain by tourists, who have taken pictures before the writings were erased. Whereas the emotion is great beyond the Channel, the British consular assistant in Le Touquet, William Porter, avoids any confusion about a supposed Anglophobia, in the Iraqi War's context. He says he's "sad" of such an action and considers these words hostile to the British are "not at all the way of this region's French, who keep the memories of both world wars". Socialist representative of the Pas-de-Calais Jack Lang, has judged this desecration as "unqualifiable". "This violation of a burial place - scandalous in itself - is an attack on the memory of the sacrifice made by the British and American soldiers who contributed to the liberation of our soil."

[realpolitic]

Originally posted by Jack_www
This is sickening. They are also worried that this will lead to anti-Semitism. This just shows the true colors of the anti war protesters in France. Also 25% of a poll they took done by BBC say they support Iraq while 30% support neither side. That is not good at all. Glad I dont live in France.

They SAY they support Iraq, that just means their angry enough with the US policy to say it, I'm sure its only in protest. I've been part of the war protests, and don't know anybody here mad enough to desecrate the dead, for most of us think we resort to violence too quickly.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Spiffor
By the way, you might be interested by the difference of coverage between The Sun and the regional newspaper. here is the handmade translation :

I can't really be interested in the difference: I would not befoul my own excrement by letting it touch The Sun, so nothing about its coverage could surprise me.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by GePap
I would not befoul my own excrement by letting it touch The Sun